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The Great Plains Nature Center is the proud landlord for a colony of Purple Martins! These are the largest species of North American swallows, and are of special interest to people because they will use nests provided by humans. We put up our Purple Martin houses in spring 1999 and were pleasantly surprised to have full occupancy within a month! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
In 2000 we documented the progress of our "tenants"
on our web site. We had weekly updates on our little families, with pictures and
information about our birds and Purple Martin natural history. Our birds raised 29
young in 2000. See the photos and information on these pages for what a
"typical" nesting cycle is like.
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Click here
for this year's (2009) activity. Click below to see how our colony did each year.
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Purple Martins east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States use artificial nesting structures almost exclusively. Our colony has eight units mounted in a circular array on a flagpole-like structure. Each unit is a white plastic artificial gourd with an entrance hole for the birds and a screw-on lid for checking the nest. |
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| Because of problems with starlings, in 2005 we modified our nests with starling-excluding openings and they did their job well. Here is what the opening looks like. The platform has a non-skid material on it that gives the birds better traction for wiggling through the opening. There is a similar platform on the inside so they can wiggle back out again! |
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The whole contraption can be lowered with a rope and pulley for maintenance and inspection. The birds leave while this is being done, but otherwise they don't seem to mind very much. The gourd rack has a notch that fits into a bolt on the side of the pole at top, so the nests stay in the same compass position when they are raised back up. This is vital because the birds orient to the position of "their" nest, and will get confused if it changes its place. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Here is our new (2009) martin house. It has eight units, each of which is made of painted sheet metal with porches and half-circle entry doors. There are also perches in between the units. A cylindrical predator baffle is mounted just above the crank mechanism. |
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GPNC PURPLE MARTIN NEWS FOR 2009
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| Summary of nesting
activity in our colony in 2009
Gourd Structure: Nest 1 faces East and they are numbered in
clockwise order Metal structure: Nest 1-4 in upper story; 1-E, 2-S, 3-W, 4-N |
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Date |
Nest 1 |
Nest 2 |
Nest 3 |
Nest 4 |
Nest 5 |
Nest 6 |
Nest 7 |
Nest 8 |
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30-June |
5 nestlings | partial nest | 3 nestlings | 6 nestlings | 3 nestlings | 6 nestlings | 4 nestlings | 5 nestlings | |||||||||||||||||||||||
23-June |
5 nestlings | partial nest | 3 nestlings | 6 nestlings | 3 nestlings | 6 nestlings | 4 nestlings | 4 hatchlings 1 egg |
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17-June |
5 nestlings | partial nest | 3 nestlings | 6 nestlings | 3 nestlings 1 infertile egg |
6 nestlings | 4 nestlings | 5 eggs | |||||||||||||||||||||||
8-June |
5 eggs | partial nest | 3 eggs | 6 eggs | 4 eggs | 5 eggs, 2 hatchlings |
4 eggs | 5 eggs | |||||||||||||||||||||||
3-June |
5 eggs | partial nest | 3 eggs | 6 eggs | 5 eggs | 7 eggs (!!) | 4 eggs | 1 egg | |||||||||||||||||||||||
26-May |
4 eggs | partial nest | 1 egg | 6 eggs | 2 eggs | 7 eggs (!!) | 2 eggs | partial nest | |||||||||||||||||||||||
19-May |
complete nest | partial nest | partial nest | complete nest | partial nest | complete nest | partial nest | empty | |||||||||||||||||||||||
13-May |
partial nest | partial nest | partial nest | complete nest | partial nest | complete nest | partial nest | empty | |||||||||||||||||||||||
5-May |
empty | empty | partial nest | partial nest | empty | partial nest | empty | empty | |||||||||||||||||||||||
28-April |
empty | empty | partial nest | partial nest | empty | partial nest | empty | empty | |||||||||||||||||||||||
